


Ethir ar Pheredhel

by Elizabeth (anghraine)



Series: The Queer Rogue One AU [6]
Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Alternate Universe - Always a Different Sex, Alternate Universe - Middle-earth Fusion, Alternate Universe - Star Wars Fusion, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, F/F, Gondor, Umbar
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-07
Updated: 2018-05-07
Packaged: 2019-05-03 18:07:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 420
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14574630
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anghraine/pseuds/Elizabeth
Summary: Gondor's best spy, Casrían of Lebennin, is sent on a mission to track down and kill a rogue Northern engineer—with the unwitting help of his daughter, the thief Eressen.





	Ethir ar Pheredhel

Casrían knew the truth about Eressen. She had spied in Eriador, Dunland, Umbar, Ithilien, in four nations of Harad, seven of Rhûn, and on one terrifying occasion, Mordor. She’d coordinated between Dravin in Pelargir and Modhan of the Amrûn. It did not take the blood of Númenor—more than Casrían’s few drops of it—to interpret Eressen’s pauses and scarce disclosures.

Eressen insisted that she came from Dol Amroth, but lingered over her  _d_ ’s and vowels, and scratched her  _h_ ’s. Casrían knew the dialect of the North when she heard it, could imitate it well enough when she had to, and knew that Eressen must know it, too. She lied, poorly, with a gleam in her eyes that dared Casrían to challenge her, and had Kheitûn doing so at every opportunity.

Eressen did not know, however, that Casrían guessed at how very much older she must be, and why she would have chosen Amroth of all places to scrape by on tricks and thievery. Eressen certainly did not know that the spymasters of Pelargir cared far less about her link to Zagerra’s operations in Umbar, than to one who had lived longer years— _much_  longer years—in what had once been Eregion, one who must have far more to tell.

Of course, Dravin had hinted at it so broadly that Casrían would have guessed anyway. Many in the North found themselves fleeing one thing or another, but few attracted a personal hunt by the thralls of the Enemy. Eressen could be the key to finding her jewelsmith of a sire, and elderly jewelsmiths hunted in Eriador? To Casrían’s mind, and more importantly, Dravin’s, that meant one thing.

It meant, thought Casrían grimly, that an Elf must die at her hand. She was, at least, Dúnadan enough to recoil from that. Whatever else she might have done, she’d never shed the blood of the Eldar. A cursed deed, but if the Enemy found him—

Well.

“That is the great scheme?” Eressen asked, bright eyes narrowed. “We sneak into Umbar and wait?”

“I had a … an acquaintance among Zagerra’s people,” replied Casrían, trying not to think about it, “who has just gone missing. His sister will be looking for him. She can take us to Zagerra, and we shall hope he is willing to parley with you.”

“Hope?” she said incredulously. “For the Amrûn?”

Casrían leaned down a little—Eressen was small for the peredhel she had to be—and looked intently into her eyes.

“Rebellions are built on hope.”

**Author's Note:**

> *deep breath*
> 
> \- Casrían comes from the 'hardy folk' of coastal Lebennin: "The most part of the people of Gondor lived in ... the City, or in ... Lossarnach, or further south in fair Lebennin with its five swift streams. There dwelt a hardy folk between the mountains and the sea. They were reckoned men of Gondor, yet their blood was mingled, and there were short and swarthy folk among them whose sires came from from the forgotten men ... ere the coming of the kings." This population would have made up a good chunk of the Gondorian army that Aragorn leads to rescue Minas Tirith (replaced by CGI ghosts in the films).
> 
> \- Originally it wasn't going to be an AU of the queer AU, but a) I'm weak, and b) I wanted different names than my other Tolkien fusion, and -rían worked well, but is invariably feminine. What a tragedy ;)
> 
> \- Most of the names are just adjusting to the norms of Sindarin, but Casrían would mean something like 'helmet-crowned gift.' I imagine that her mother foresaw her becoming an archer in the war, and didn't realize she was seeing her as a spy/saboteur/assassin rather than a soldier.
> 
> \- Modhan is Mon Mothma, here the Black Númenórean leader of a resistance movement ( _Amrûn_ , sunrise/uprising) in Umbar. Tolkien suggested there were some of these among Sauron's minions/allies that critically hobbled his assaults on Gondor. In the AU, Gondor has a far-flung spying network based in the ancient harbour of Pelargir(/Venice, according to Tolkien) that aids the Umbarean resistances both for their own sakes and for generally fomenting chaos among the Corsairs.
> 
> \- Gondorian Sindarin is a distinct dialect: _Rohan_ , for instance, would be _Rochand_ in 'standard' Sindarin, which Eressen noticeably speaks.
> 
> \- Kheitûn is K-2SO, here a former slave of Mordor who rescued and was rescued by Casrían on that terrifying mission.
> 
> \- Galen is one of the Gwaith-i-Mírdain, the Elven loremasters/jewelsmiths/general experimenters responsible for the Rings. In the AU, he managed to survive the slaughter and fled into the North, eventually passing himself off as a Northern Dúnadan and marrying one of them before agents of his former friend Curunír—who has been increasingly obsessed with Rings—managed to hunt him down and press him into service. 
> 
> \- Eressen was taken up by Zagerra of Umbar, the leader of a more aggressive rebellion against the Corsairs, but eventually his people suspected that she was a Dúnadan enemy and he left her on the shores of Belfalas. She hides out in Dol Amroth because it combines a high density Númenórean population with plenty of quiet intermarriage with Elves, so she's able to blend in (though, as far as the Gondorian spymasters are concerned, not as well as she thinks she does).
> 
> \- Bodhi isn't mentioned, but exists: he's a minor Corsair mariner who runs errands between Umbar and Isengard on account of a secret alliance with Saruman, but influenced by Galen, defects with information about the Rings and Saruman's betrayal before LOTR.


End file.
